Army bomb disposal team clears Afghan highway

The road, littered with improvised explosive devices and surrounded by insurgent positions, had previously been impassable for the local population…

The road, littered with improvised explosive devices and surrounded by insurgent positions, had previously been impassable for the local population in an area controlled by the Taliban until Operation MOSHTARAK.

Captain Ciaron Dyer is part of the C-IED Task Force:

My team and I have been tasked to the area in order to clear IEDs,” he said from a compound off Route Dorset in Helmand province. “Basically, what we’ve been doing is working with a Royal Engineers search team to provide a high-assurance search of the area and search the route so that we can clear these IEDs.

Having spotted a potential IED on the route, Captain Dyer explained what happened next:

What’s happened is that in the last 20 minutes we’ve just moved into the incident control point and we’ve sent out the Royal Engineers search team to isolate the IED from any command wires that may be coming into that area. Once that’s complete, I’ll then walk down the road and deal with the IED.

Having dealt with the device, Captain Dyer said:

What we’ve found is an IED in the middle of the road. Ordinarily I would consider blowing it in situ, having removed the components for further analysis; however, in this instance it would have risked damaging the road too much.

See embedded video to watch the C-IED Task Force and Royal Engineers search team in action.